Day: July 13, 2006

Between illness, travel, and spending time with the wife and children, I’ve had even less than typical spare time to work on the site.Ã‚Â I have tried to at least get a couple of articles up per day these past few days, but I’ve fallen short.Ã‚Â I’m going to be on travel the next couple of days again, so again posting will be slow.Ã‚Â I expect to have time beginning Sunday to start catching up again.Ã‚Â If this works out, look for 10-20 articles a day as I catch up on my backlog of blog/news/gaming reading.Ã‚Â I am trying my best to resolve these slow times in a way that keeps the site more active.Ã‚Â We shall see over the next few weeks how well I can work this out.

My, what those Germans won’t do to stay ahead of the energy crisis!Ã‚Â In this case, it’s looking to cow manure as a source of energy.Ã‚Â Of course, in this instance, this Modern Mechanix posting shows us the Germans were doing this in 1949.Ã‚Â But maybe the whole technology will make a big come back with these soaring fuel prices we’ve seen of late?

THEREÃ¢â‚¬â„¢S an old European proverb which says you can measure the extent of a farmerÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s prosperity by the height of his manure pile. That saying is closer to the truth today in Germany than it has ever been before.

A German inventor named Harnisch has developed a simple device which converts manure into fuel. And this fuel is used to drive autos and tractors as well as provide household power.

The idea of using manure as fuel is not a new one. Cow manure has been used for this purpose for thousands of years in India and Ã¢â‚¬Å“Africa. As recently as 1912, many cities were operating gas lanterns on sewage gas.

Skeptical of the value of this technology?Ã‚Â You shouldn’t be.Ã‚Â Check out the supply ratio:

Methane from two cows is enough to heat the average farm house. With 20 head of cattle the farmer can operate a tractor for 120 days!